THE US MILITARY MUTINY AGAINST PRESIDENT OBAMA: THE BUSH POLITICIZED ARMY
President Obama was elected by voters who were determined to end the unneccessary Bush wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Surprise! President Obama has experienced a bottle neck. Unfortunately the loyalty of the US Army is not to its current Commander-in-Chief, President Barack Obama; the loyalty of the American military leaders is to former President Bush and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC); signatories of the PNAC are Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, I. Lewis Libby, Dan Quayle, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz among others. The PNAC Is a Right Wing-Nut think tank that demanded that President Clinton invade Iraq for American economical interests. He refused to do their bidding.
The PNAC in its statement of purpose demands that the United States to use its military superiority to dominate the world economy for America (and American corporate interests); When 911 occurred, the PNAC advocates had their opportunity. They were in the position of power.
Perhaps it wasn’t noticed by some, but it was obvious to most that President Bush simply ‘retired’ generals who disagreed with him on his wars and promoted generals who shared his Project for the New American Century ideology; President George W. Bush has totally politicized the military during his eight year reign; he surrounded himself and the American military with signatories of the statement and purpose of the Project for the New American Century. To accomplish his purpose, President Bush had to have a military that shared the Project for the New American Century ideology.
President Bush, based on recent evidence, also politicized the normally non partisan Justice Department and the courts. President Bush did not want to be legally challenged in his use of the American military. Never in all of my years of observing the American democratic Republic have I seen a President politicize the military and the Justice Departments so blatantly as President George W. Bush.
Eventually, President Obama must depoliticize the military which is much more difficult to depoliticize than the Justice Department. Just before he left office, President George W. Bush also moved many of his political appointees into Civil Service jobs so they can continue working for the government and work against President Obama. It will take President Obama some time to undo the mess; if he moves too fast, he will then be criticized for politicizing the army himself. Bush has got America and Obama into deep, deep doo doo! It definitely affects Obama’s strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Obama has made progress in depoliticizing the Justice Department but nothing can be done about the courts (life time appointments). Depoliticizing the military, where officers assignments are not easily changed over the short hall, it is a huge and dangerous undertaking, particularly in time of war.
On one other occasion, an American President, Harry Truman, faced up to one defiant General. “You are fired,” President Harry Truman told General Douglas MacArthur in 1951; it was a moment in history when a President effectively dealt with a purely politically motivated general. President Obama should take note.
The American Armed Forces is a rigid chain of command and soldiers take an oath to follow orders, defend the Constitution, and they give up their civil rights as citizens.
The US Constitution, for good reason, makes the President, a civilian, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Presidents from George Washington on never wore a uniform as President of the United States, even if they were military generals before becoming President. There is one exception to the tradition of Presidents not wearing uniforms; President George W. Bush donned full military battle dress to fly to a aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln, for a photo op and to announce “Mission Accomplished” and the end of the Iraq War in 2003 although the war continues today.
President George Bush also appointed a military head of the CIA, where normally a civilian is appointed, indicating that President Bush not only politicized the military, he militarized the civilian government.
President Obama has a serious problem to resolve, to depoliticize the military and demilitarize the civilian government. There are questions; would the US Army ever stage a coup? Can the US. Army be disciplined; they have had eight years of power.
President Obama needs to appoint a task force for the purpose of regaining control of purpose for the American Army and resolve the issues in the needless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The President must end the aggressive wars embarked on for the purpose of economic domination in the Middle East.
Read Seymour Hersh and more at:
Project for the New American Century:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm
